Work vehicles may be used for agricultural, forestry, construction, mining, applications that require off-road or other applications that require operation along one or more paths to traverse or navigate a work area. For example, a work vehicle (e.g., tractor) may be required to plant or harvest crops in an area of a field, or to distribute crop inputs, such as fertilizer or chemicals, over plants in the field. Many work vehicles include guidance systems to assist vehicle operators or drivers in planning a path or route for the vehicle to follow during field operations.
Once a guidance line path is identified, if the vehicle is not already on the final guidance line path, the vehicle and any attached implement must travel to the guidance line path. Existing systems direct the vehicle towards the final guidance line path without any consideration of the vehicle's current position or any other vehicle constraints. As such, existing systems produce absolute lateral and heading errors to the guidance controls system, which yields unpredictable paths to the true guidance line. This leads to an increased period of time and distance traveled in error, or outside of the guidance line path. Accordingly, there is still a need in the art for an intelligent vehicle guidance system and method that can effectively and precisely plan a path for the vehicle to reach a final guidance line path during operation of the vehicle.